NYF’s Torch Awards – a loser’s perspective

By Tessa Midgley (right) and Jardin Anderson (left) from Rapp Melbourne.

Officially the Torch Awards are the New York Festivals’ competition for creatives under 25, to nurture and mentor upcoming creative talent. Unofficially, they’re the most exhausting, exciting, rewarding, hands-on competition short of something actually exhausting, like running a marathon.

Entering involved responding to the Festivals’ brief, to create awareness for a NYC charity that helps at-risk teens by getting them involved in music. We responded with a campaign called The Six Second Singers Project.

The idea launched with fake celebrity Twitter accounts – think “@YoungJayZ” – tweeting to the world about troubles they faced in their youth and how music helped them out. We then invited people to record a six second snippet of a song on Instagram or Vine before mixing all the contributions together into one epic song – a virtual demonstration of the charity, if you will.

After being shortlisted as finalists, alongside teams from Beijing, Canada and two from the US, we were off to New York for round two.

This was where it really got interesting. We experienced the sort of team bonding that only sharing a bunk in one of New York’s smallest hotels can provide. We also found out that any time you order food in America you should expect to get a plate, piled high, at least twice the size of your head. Awesome.

Plus, unlike other competitions where you submit work and hope for the best, the Torch Awards turned out to be a lot more hands-on and practical. With a focus on pitching, each team was given a mentor (one of the Festivals’ executive jury members) to help refine the idea and present it.

For us, this meant meeting with our mentor (the amazing Bridget Jung, chief creative officer Paris & regional creative director Europe West, Digitas) with late night Skype meetings in Melbourne and in person in New York. The mentor-mentee structure meant we got lots of feedback to make our idea better and she pushed and inspired us to become better presenters.

Pitch day came and it was pretty much like the real thing. We pitched to clients plus members of the Festivals’ executive jury – people from all over the world who we’d never otherwise have access to. After so much work, the pitch itself actually went pretty quickly, but that’s probably true of a real pitch too.

The next day, with all the pressure off we got to go to the Festivals’ talks. We heard people speak on women in advertising, the role of content in advertising and the mentor-mentee relationship. They were candid, provocative panels, all of which were inspiring.

The last stop was the awards themselves, and whilst we didn’t win (the award went to the team from DDB Beijing) we had the opportunity to meet with people we never would have if we hadn’t entered. We also got a sneak-peek of all the new work that’s set to do the rounds this awards season, like an ad projected on the Berlin wall that was activated by the flash from tourist’s cameras and Hope Soap – toys encased in clear soap to encourage kids to wash their hands.

All up, the Torch Awards is one of the most involved, but also the most rewarding competitions for young creatives. Aside from going to New York and the Festivals themselves, the mentor-mentee structure taught us heaps, helped improve our pitching skills and gave us loads to think about. So when it comes around again next year, enter it. You won’t regret it. Like the food, you’ll get far more than you expect.